Witten joining Belichick’s opponent Mt. Rushmore
Nice follow up to yesterday’s article from the WSJ about how tough it is to get praise out of BB for Pats players. Here are some great comments on the players he’s faced.
bill belichick
The Patriots’ White Whale: Praise From Belichick
The Patriots’ White Whale: Praise From Belichick
Yeah yeah yeah, is this really all that surprising. And honestly, after seeing so many NFL Films’ pieces on him I don’t think BB giving praise is as rare as it might seem here. Still it’s fun to see how scared everyone is of him.
Since Belichick became coach of the Patriots in 2000, the team has made 110 trades – an even split of 55 on draft day, and the other 55 not during the draft. That’s an average of 6.8 trades per season over his 16-year tenure.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/since-belichick-became-coach-of-the-patriots-in/
Bill Belichick’s “Bend-Don’t-Break” Defense in One Simple Chart (2001-2015)
Much has been made over the years of Bill Belichick’s “Bend-Don’t-Break” philosophy on defense. Now it is an easy excuse when the defense gives up a ton of yards but still win the game because Tom Brady scored more points.
But as we can see this has always been Belichick’s philosophy, even going back to 2003 and 2004, years everyone remembers as the prime of defense in New England.
The chart above breaks down the Bend side, including yards-per-drive and plays-per-drive, and the Break side, including points-per-drive and turnovers-per-drive.
As you can see the Patriots are rarely in the top-10 for the yards (twice) and plays (three times) they give up every drive. But when it comes to the points and turnovers, they’re almost always in the top half of the league, and usually top five or ten.
Even last year’s over-romanticized defense gave up sustained drives but when it came to the red zone they closed the door.
This speaks to Belichick’s philosophy of playing disciplined but not over-aggressive defense. They might not get off the field as quickly as we all might like, but by forcing the offense to earn every yard, more often than not they get a stop or a turnover.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/bill-belichicks-bend-dont-break-defense-in-one/
Bill Belichick mic’d up for Jaguars vs. Patriots (Week 3) | Sound FX | NFL Films
Bill Belichick mic’d up for Jaguars vs. Patriots (Week 3) | Sound FX | NFL Films
Great stuff, can never get enough of BB being miked up obvs. When Gus Bradley thanks him it’s somewhat how I imagine myself speaking to BB one day. An awkward, intimidated “no for reals, I love you man”. But it was nice of BB to acknowledge what Bradley’s doing with the Jaguars and then he throws the “hope you get healthy” after the postgame handshake, almost as if to say “maybe we wouldn’t have hung 50 on you if you had all your guys”.
McCourty getting an earful for passing on picking up that fumble was a good moment too. Not often you hear a captain getting reamed, if you can really even call it a reaming.
John Lynch gives insight into Bill Belichick’s softer side as a recruiter
John Lynch gives insight into Bill Belichick’s softer side as a recruiter
Enjoyed this read on Belichick recruiting John Lynch. He also represents an interesting schematic chance that started for BB around 2008 where he really wanted to a strong safety who would really be a linebacker. Very similar to what we see today with Patrick Chung and guys like Tavon Wilson and Jordan Richards. In a perfect world one of those guys could run like a free safety and you’d get the best of both worlds, but I’m not sure they’ve found that guy yet.